School relocation takes parent to court

LHC Rawalpindi Bench issues notice to Govt of Punjab through Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority.

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench on Monday issued notice to the Government of Punjab through the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) for issuing a notification to shift the Technical Training School from village Maloot Sattian to Kotli Sattian, District Rawalpindi.

Jutice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh issued notice to the Punjab government and District Manager TEVTA and asked them to reply with their comments by December 20.

The petitioner, Zahoor Ahmed Satti, a local resident and father of one of the students through his legal counsel Asad Abbasi, filed a writ petition in Lahore High Court Rawalpindi, in which he challenged the notification and maintained that the government of Punjab through TEVTA established a training school in 2007 in a rented building at village Maloot Sattian, District Rawalpindi, where more 200 male and female students were receiving training.

He told the court that the school was running successfully and local students were benefitting since its establishment.

He further maintained that the District Manager (TEVTA) on October 25 issued notification to shift the school to another village named Kotli Sattian without any solid reason. He stated that after shifting the school to Kotli Sattian the future of the students would be at stake.

The legal Counsel told the court that the previous government established this school in order to give opportunity to the local student and many of students had benefited through this school, but the current government wants to deprive the local students and issued notification for shifting to another village which is unjust.

He further maintained that the students who are studying there sent several requests to the concerned authorities to have the notification withdrawn and their parents even offered to give piece of land to construct a new school but their requests went unheard.

He prayed that the court declare the notification illegal and direct the concerned authorities to repeal the notice. On this court issued notices to the concerned authorities and asked them to reply by the given date.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2010.